Thursday, December 29, 2011

Last summer, I hemmed and hawed over whether to invest in a winter CSA share. I was determined to light my coop and plant for fall and be (almost) self-sufficient. Drowning in tomatoes in September, I decided there would be no lighting of the coop. I didn't have time to figure it out.

I didn't have much time for planting either. I half-heartedly threw potatoes in every available empty container - a bushel basket, some terra cotta pots, large plastic nursery pots, and a mound fashioned out of stakes and leftover chicken coop.

My potatoes this fall.

I threw out some lettuce and carrot seeds and invested in a couple six packs of veggies - broccoli, swiss chard, lettuce and bok choy. I ignored the lettuce and it bolted. The broccoli still has not "headed". Will it? I have no idea. I clearly put the chard in to late as it has never really grown and 2 of the 6 seedlings have disappeared thanks to some pest or another. But the carrots, the bok choy and the potatoes?

Oh yeah baby! My not so hard work paid off as I hauled in this New Year's harvest (plus some additional mandarins).

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

I haven't posted in a while due, in large part, to holiday craziness. Today, though, I was forced to clean out the chicken coop. I mean the girls really put down their clawed feet! My time in the winter garden outside calmed, restored and rejuvenated. Take a walk with me and, for a moment, forget wrapping, baking, shopping and holiday'ing in general.